[Advaita-l] Vedas are not apauresheya according to the Vedas ?

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

>
>
> So, I suppose a fundamental issue is this. Are you interested in
> elucidating veda apaurusheyatva in order to convince the general Hindu on
> the street or are you interested in it for the sake of arguing with
> Christians and Muslims who argue for the exclusive claim to truth in their
> own respective texts? If the latter, then there are many other means to do
> it, instead of going after apaurusheyatva of the veda.
>
> RV :  I agree that there are are many ways to deal with Christianity and
Islam. I know both the inclusive approach of ISKCON and exclusive approach
Sam Harris, Kalavai etc. Both are effective depending on the audience. My
concern  here is only with truth of apauresheya. If it serves a purpose of
defending and spreading sanatana dharma giving people bliss, great.

All scriptures are verbal testimonies. Logical arguments can be used to
establish correctness of one over the other. People have done it which is
why evil practices such as slavery and witch hunting have gone away and new
memes have replaced  old ones. But the easiest approach is to accept any
verbal testimony, hindu smrtis or bible or quran, only if they don't
contradict apauresheya Veda. Apauresheya texts constitute primary verbal
testimony and hence the need to establish it.

>
>
> Within the Astika milieu, the authority of smRti is accepted as secondary
> to that of Sruti both by those who accept apaurusheyatva of Sruti and by
> those who reject apaurusheyatva of Sruti. The only other criterion for
> accepting a given smRti as a pramANa would be to hold that the said smRti
> is accepted by SishTa-s, but in an indirect way, this again makes its
> authority dependent on that of Sruti, because a SishTa, by definition,
> already holds that Sruti is pramANa. So again, apaurusheyatva is not an
> invariable prerequisite for accepting smRti pramANa.
>

RV: What is the logical reason to accept Shruti as the basis for smrti? The
only difference is former is apauresheya and the latter pauresheya.  If
some astika traditions have flaws in their thinking, we have to call it out
not accept it.